Can ‘New Girl’ Stars Benefit from Emmy Screw-Up?

There is an article by Tom O’Neil at Gold Derby today stating that a DVD snafu might help “New Girl” stars Zooey Deschanel and Max Greenfield win Emmy Awards. Every nominated actor submits an episode of their choice for the panel of voting judges to view for consideration. The judges are required to watch each submitted episode and vote. At the place that distributes the DVDs to the judges, Deschanel’s episode was sent to voters in Greenfield’s category, and vice versa.

So O’Neil is positing that the “New Girl” stars have a major advantage. Not only will voters watch two episodes of their work, but the voters are just receiving the correct episodes so their performances will be fresh in voters’ minds. This advantage should push them over the line to the win.

It’s a valid theory, I suppose, but it breaks down in a couple places. First, both episodes of “New Girl” that were sent—“Control” and “Bad in Bed”—are solid, but Deschanel’s work doesn’t vary wildly in them. Voters might actually be inclined to think she’s doing a one-note performance. Greenfield does shine in each episode, but here’s the thing: his competition is Bill Hader of “Saturday Night Live” and four actors from “Modern Family.” If Greenfield has an advantage because voters watched two episodes, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the “Modern Family” guys would have an even bigger advantage, as judges are watching four episodes of their work?

There is also a much simpler issue at hand. The voting system relies on faith to assume judges will actually watch the episodes. There is obviously no way no monitor this. In addition, what are the odds that many of the judges just happen to watch the enormously popular “Modern Family” regularly? Or are members of the Bill Hader Fan Club? It seems arbitrary to assume that just because an extra episode was sent, people are going to change their vote. I suppose it couldn’t hurt, but I’m still sticking with Ed O’Neill of “Modern Family” over Greenfield—it should be noted that O’Neil thinks O’Neill is the only actor with no chance in this category—and Lena Dunham over Deschanel.